The release this week of Marvel Studios\u2019 latest superhero outing, \u201cBlack Panther\u201d, has triggered the enthusiasm of African movie fans and a sense of pride that Hollywood has finally plugged a gap.<\/p>\n
With an almost entirely black cast and a young African-American director, Ryan Coogler, the film has already won rave reviews for its stereotype-busting portrayal of Africa.<\/p>\n
After all the hype, select audiences in African countries have got a sneak preview of the new blockbuster \u2014 and many agree it\u2019s an important moment in popular culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I was watching the movie with friends, I remember we all felt part of history. This is beyond a movie. This is huge,\u201d said Brian Barasa, a 29-year-old Kenyan who says he has loved comic books for as long as he can remember.<\/p>\n
Set in the fictional African country of Wakanda, the film\u2019s focus on black protagonists, stories and culture sets it clearly apart from other superhero movies.<\/p>\n
But hero T\u2019Challa, the king of Wakanda played by Chadwick Boseman, is not the first black superhero to hit the big screen.<\/p>\n
Barasa, who co-founded the Nairobi Comic Convention in 2014, points out that was \u201cBlade\u201d \u2014 a vampire with human traits portrayed by actor Wesley Snipes in the trilogy between 1998 and 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Blade was American,\u201d said Barasa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a conversation I had recently, somebody pointed out, \u2018Blade had to walk in order for Black Panther to run\u2019,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Cultural impact\u00a0<\/strong> Superhero fans also appear to appreciate the film\u2019s visual qualities, the reproduction of costumes from the original comic and the characters\u2019 accents.<\/p>\n \u201cUsually in Hollywood, you\u2019re just African. They will use a Nigerian actor with a Nigerian accent to play a Kenyan character or vice versa,\u201d said Sope Aluko, one of five Nigerians in the film, at the Lagos premiere in Nigeria this week.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew that we had a responsibility towards Africa and the black community in general while shooting this movie,\u201d she added. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t expect anything like this, all this enthusiasm coming from the black community.\u201d<\/p>\n Commercially, the film looks set to break some box office records.<\/p>\n But for some, the potential cultural impact could be its most important achievement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very important statement to the world that Marvel Studio can have a movie entirely based on African characters,\u201d said Kenyan actor Moses Odua at the African premiere in Kisumu, a town in the west of the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is so nice, it\u2019s going to turn away some of the stereotypes we have on Africans.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Afro-future\u2019\u00a0<\/strong> Yet, at the same time, Wakanda is also anchored in African values of community and spirit.<\/p>\n \u201cI like the Afro-future description of the continent and the mix of modern and tradition. They show regular Africans working with technology,\u201d said Chiko Esire, 32, in Lagos.<\/p>\n Others took pride in the purely commercial aspect of \u201cBlack Panther\u201d, which has already beaten \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d in pre-sales in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a movie fanatic, I only watch maybe three or four movies a year,\u201d said 27-year-old James Odede, who runs an IT firm.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I am excited about this one because it tries to illustrate that a movie that is predominantly black-cast can still sell and do well.\u201d<\/p>\n Kenya film-maker Jinna Mutune, 29, believes the film has achieved its aim of showing African culture in a positive light but that more black-focused movies need to be produced.<\/p>\n \u201c(It) is definitely filling a huge gap,\u201d she said, but added: \u201cWe need more and more and more \u2018Black Panthers\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The release this week of Marvel Studios\u2019 latest superhero outing, \u201cBlack Panther\u201d, has triggered the enthusiasm of African movie fans and a sense of pride that Hollywood has finally plugged a gap. With an almost entirely black cast and a young African-American director, Ryan Coogler, the film has already won rave reviews for its stereotype-busting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":402087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[137],"tags":[17136,623],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSo far \u201cBlack Panther\u201d has generated an enthusiastic response from communities in Kenya and Nigeria that are often stereotypically represented on screen.<\/p>\n
\nIn the film, Wakanda has skilfully exploited its mineral wealth to become the most developed and technologically advanced country in the world \u2014 a complete reverse of the run-of-mill portrayal of African nations as backward, poverty-stricken and disease-ridden.<\/p>\n